Evaluation of HF crossbred bulls under field progeny testing programme at different agro-climatic regions in India

Abstract

Adequate numbers of progeny tested bulls are not available in India and whatever small number of bulls are progeny tested, they have low repeatability as the progeny tests are based on small number of daughters mostly reared at the institutional farms. But extending the progeny testing programmes to the farmer's herds will sort out the issue of less number of progeny per bull. The first lactation records of 4,782 crossbred cows which were daughters of 121 bulls and calved over a period of 12 years from 1996 to 2008 were used to determine the genetic worth of HF crossbred bulls under different agro-climatic conditions and to assess their ranking. The average first lactation milk yield in field HF crossbred cows was 2806.51±56.06 kg. In this evaluation average number of progeny per bull was 39.5. The breeding value of bulls was estimated as 2,920.59 kg for 1st ranked bull and 2662.58 kg for 121st ranked bull. A total of 47 bulls (38%) showed higher breeding values ranging from 2,807.91 to 2,920.59 kg over and above the herd average. Among the fixed effects, the centre of field progeny testing programme and year of calving had significant effect on first lactation milk yield of daughters. The increasing trend of first lactation milk yield over years is a clear indication of a successful large scale progeny testing programme under field conditions.